midwest neurotica

To my vegetarian friends, this post contains overt depictions of poultry.

Poaching is something that sounds difficult, but really isn’t. As a born-again-cook, its something I tried today for the first time. A recipe I wanted to make called for poached, shredded chicken. I started by googling “how to poach chicken” and came upon a few ideas.

1. First, I started with some baby carrots, red onion, bouillon and cajun seasoning in a dutch oven.

2. Then I opened 2 packages of thinly sliced free range, vegetarian-fed, no-antibiotic/hormone chicken breast. Why this stuff can’t be called organic is beyond me.

3. I placed the breast sliced on top of the veggies with some peppercorns.

4. I covered everything with 5 cups of cold water and turned on the heat to high.

5. By the time the pot came to a bubble, my chicken was about half cooked. I set the timer for 7 minutes, reduced the heat to low and partly covered the pot.

6. The chicken was cooked in those 7 minutes because the breasts were already sliced in half. (Increase cooking time to 15 minutes if using whole breasts.) I then scooped out the carrots and let the chicken sit in the liquid for 3 more minutes.

7. I took the breasts out of the liquid, cooled on the counter and then shredded with a fork.

8. I set aside 3 breasts for later in the week and made cajun chicken salad with the rest.

Technorati Tags: chicken, comfort food, cooking